I Became a Zapdos in Catch ‘Em Battles and It Was Glorious

You know that feeling when you’re down to your last sliver of health, an enemy Greninja is licking its tongue-darts, and suddenly you remember you’ve got a literal giant electric bird in your pocket? That’s Pokemon Unite’s Catch ‘Em Battles for you – a mode so wonderfully chaotic that I now measure my life in pre-Zapdos and post-Zapdos moments. I’ve played a lot of Unite since it launched, but nothing, absolutely nothing prepared me for the joy of stomping across Mer Stadium as a wild Electrode with a grudge and a self-destruct button.

Catch ‘Em Battles is a limited-time Quick Match that wraps up in five glorious minutes, and every second feels like a fever dream designed by a committee of Jigglypuffs. It’s 4v4 on Mer Stadium, with three enemy goal zones to harass and the usual double-points scramble in the final minute. But don’t expect the standard map-flow. The spawns are wilder, the tactics messier, and you’ll spend half the match trying to figure out whether you’re playing Pokemon Unite or some spin-off where the Pokemon finally got their revenge on our perpetual bossiness.

Here’s where it gets beautifully absurd: you can catch wild Pokemon mid-match. Not KO them for points, not shoo them away – actually catch them, then transform into them instead of your usual Battle Item. It’s like the developers asked, “What if the whole map was a buffet of temporary main-character syndrome?” The eligible ‘mons are marked with a glowing white circle, so you always know who’s up for adoption. The cast includes Electrode, Araquanid, Ludicolo, Tauros, Drednaw, Avalugg, Zapdos, Articuno, and Regigigas. Yes, even the legendary birds and the titanic Regigigas are just waiting for a loving last hit so you can borrow their power and their hitbox.

To catch one, you need to land the final blow – which immediately turns every wild spawn into a mini team-fight. I’ve seen more backstabs over a Tauros than over a Rotom in ranked. Once you’ve secured your new friend, you can send them out, replacing your Battle Item slot. That means if you’ve already used your Eject Button twice, you can instead unleash a Drednaw with a chip on its shoulder. Each capturable Pokemon has two distinct moves and its own stats, so for a brief, shining moment you’re basically playing a boss character. And you spawn back in with full health, effectively giving you a second life. I can’t stress this enough: even if you catch a Ludicolo and just dance inside an enemy goal zone while your team scores, it’s worth it for the sheer intimidation factor. Nobody expects a dancing pineapple-crab to body-block a score attempt.

The mode doesn’t abandon objectives entirely – it just twists them into new, hilarious purposes. Rotom still spawns in both top and bottom lanes and works as a traditional push-bot. Group up, smack it, escort it, hear the satisfying clang when an enemy goal gets vulnerable. But the other “objective” Pokemon? They’ve all gone freelancer. Drednaw and Avalugg spawn near each team’s home base, but instead of granting a generic team buff they become prize catches – if someone manages to out-smite the opposing team. I’ve watched entire lanes collapse because two players decided a Drednaw was more important than their actual goal. Fair. I’ve been one of them.

Then come the headliners. Articuno and Zapdos, instead of providing their iconic endgame swings, are just really, really strong catchable Pokemon. They appear in the center of the top and bottom lanes respectively, and if you pull off the snipe, you get to waddle or hover around with an attack that instantly exposes an enemy goal zone for 15 seconds. Zapdos’s Zap Cannon and Articuno’s Ice Bean function exactly like a Rotom dunk-fest, but from the claw or beak of a legendary. The sheer psychological warfare of watching an enemy Articuno casually render your heavily guarded inner goal defenseless while two Machamps rush in with 50-point orbs is something I will carry to my grave.

The cherry on top is Regigigas. At the 1:30 mark – right when double points kick in – this colossal slow-motion disaster spawns dead center of the map. Whoever lands the final hit gets to unleash Hyper Beam, which does exactly what you think: makes any enemy goal zone vulnerable for a scoring spree. Combined with double points, a single Regigigas push can turn a comfortable lead into a stat-sheet nightmare. I’ve seen matches swing by 300 points in the final forty seconds because one team’s Greedent became the temporary vessel of a continent-forcing legend. If you’re not hovering around that center pad at 2:00 sharp, praying to the matchmaking gods that your unite move is charged, you’re doing Catch ‘Em Battles wrong.

A few hard-earned tips from my own rollercoaster journey: never ignore the white-circled wilds, even if it’s an Araquanid. The extra life alone has saved more lanes than I can count. If you hear the sound of a legendary dying nearby, drop everything – the payoff of a caught Zapdos is often bigger than whatever you were doing. And please, for the love of all things fluffy, don’t pop your Regigigas immediately in front of the entire enemy team with no backup. I have been that person, and the silence from my randoms was louder than a Decidueye’s arrows.

Is this mode balanced? Absolutely not. Is it the most fun I’ve had in Pokemon Unite since I first discovered stacking items? Without a doubt. It embraces the sheer wackiness of the franchise in a way that makes five minutes fly by faster than a Talonflame on Fly. Whether you’re a veteran or someone who just unlocked Slowbro’s first holowear, Catch ‘Em Battles offers a refreshing, laugh-out-loud detour from the sweaty ranked grind. I’ve already caught a Zapdos, I’ve been a very angry Tauros, and I’ve accidentally self-destructed as Electrode right next to a full-HP Lucario. 10/10, would become a wild Pokémon again.